February 6^th, 2004 (12:00am) - Electronic Arts and Marvel Enterprises have announced that they have entered into an agreement, whereby EA will develop a new generation of fighting video games pitting Super Heroes from the Marvel Universe against a new, original set of EA heroes.

Under the multi-year agreement, EA has been granted a license to develop and distribute fighting games featuring the Marvel Super Heroes. Additionally, EA has granted Marvel the exclusive rights as worldwide licensing agent for all consumer products and media licensing for the new EA heroes. Marvel will publish new comic books introducing the EA characters. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for EA to create new characters for fighting games that can be exploited through our global merchandise licensing machine to fuel sales in many other product categories,” said Allen Lipson, President and CEO of Marvel Enterprises.

”It’s a unique opportunity, partnering with Marvel to bring their renowned Super Heroes into original videogame environments, as well as providing us an opportunity to create new heroes that will live in games, comic books and other licensing or media opportunities that Marvel presents,” said John Riccitiello, President and COO for Electronic Arts. “Fans of both traditional Marvel comics as well as video games have a lot to be excited about as they will be able to fight it out between established Marvel Super Heroes and EA’s new heroes in original scenarios,” added Riccitiello.

The Marvel and EA Super Hero based fighting games are currently under development for multiple game platforms at EA¹s studio, EAC, in British Columbia. The license grants EA the rights to develop game titles for all current and next generation videogame consoles, handheld platforms and PC’s.